It came apart because, at two different desks, someone did.

I have kept that thought close, because it is the opposite of the cynical lesson people usually draw from stories like mine.

The cynical lesson is that the world is full of predators and you can trust no one.

But that is not what my story actually shows.

My story shows that a careful, cruel, well-funded scheme, designed by two determined people over a long period of time, was defeated not by a hero but by the ordinary conscientiousness of strangers doing unglamorous jobs properly, a young analyst who would not be bribed, a notary who would not wave through a form that did not sit right, an attorney who followed the thread, police officers who worked the scene with care.

Not one of them did anything extraordinary.